


A Different View

by Sirisblowhole



Category: The View - Fandom
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-21
Updated: 2019-10-21
Packaged: 2020-12-27 21:50:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21125804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sirisblowhole/pseuds/Sirisblowhole
Summary: When Jedediah first joined The View, she didn't expect the surprises that came with it. One of those surprises being Sara.





	A Different View

Working at Fox News had been the high point of Jedediah's career. Talking politics, being on outnumbered, all the shows revolved around her opinion and how she perceived candidates and senators alike in the political world. When she was contacted by her agent telling for ABC wanted her for The View, a talk show, focused mainly on day to day topics and what political talk there was, it was focused on the liberal side, she was shocked, alighted but shocked.

The show runners and producers had propositioned her agent for Jedediah to appear on some episodes. When Fox News had heard about the side appearances, they too were shocked but more with what they thought was a traitorous attack with one of their own effectively switching sides, even though it would only be for a few guest spots. A morning meeting meant that the days topics to be covered on the news channel would be put aside and the conservatives in the room could focus their presenters move.

"Jed, you can't seriously be considering going on that show!" Michael said, efficiently voicing his disgust for the network, "A bunch of old hags talking about sex and politics, two things they pretend to be geniuses in."

The room filled with laughter before Paul, a younger presenter, butted in, "At least you won't be there all the time, just for a few fun segments and you've got Candice Cameron Bure there! You'll have room for some engaging talk whether that be before or after the show."

"I thought she was more left leaning?" Jennine questioned.

"Nope," Paul added, “I talked to a few of her people. She was advised by people on the show to keep some opinions to herself encase she alienates some of the viewers. Until she can book her next gig, she'll just have to play along."

While there was no doubt in Jedediah's mind about the move, it made sense as the next career step. It did however shock her more conservative friends and while they did not ask her about how she felt appearing on the show, they did make their feelings about her appearance on their rival network known.

"Look guys, I'm a big girl. I can handle myself. Plus, it's just to fill in for a few hot topics while someone on the panel is on maternity leave,” Jed responded, rolling her eyes at their detachment to her new gig.

"Whatever you say," Paul said. He held up his hands in mock surrender.

"Yes, it is. Now, are you going to finish that pizza or let me continue eating it with my eyes," Jed said. Her eyes eyeing up the last slice of cheese pizza on Paul's plate.

He pushed it towards her with a huff while she hummed with delight at the taste.

"How did Fox take it?" Jennine asked tentatively.

"Okay. If I'm honest, I'm starting to get tired of the constant argumentative segments. It will be nice to just add my opinion to something fun," she added.

"Let me guess, sex and a night on the town, what age is too old to do either? I can see the segment now," John laughed.

Lightly punching him on the arm, she responded, "Like I said, it's just to ease me into the show after that it’s right into the serious debates.”

“Best of Luck, Jed! You’ll do great! They’re lucky to have you,” Jennine said. She reached over the table, and gently squeezing Jed’s wrist.

“I’m not dying guys. You’re still going to see me at Fox. Just now, I’ll be on two days a week instead.”

John grabbed the opened bottle of wine on the table and stood up, “A toast. To Jed. We could all sit here wishing you luck but you’re not going to need it. All I can say is, give ‘em hell and on that note, let’s raise our glasses for Jed.” He poured wine into all their glasses before raising his own.

“To Jed!” they cheered before clinking their glasses together.

* * *

Early Monday morning, she was on her way to the ABC studios in the heart of New York City in a taxi. She checked through her phone for any new messages and ignoring the pleading messages from her friends not to take the job. After replying to her messages, she set her phone down in her lap and took a deep breath. The last few years had been a blur. Going from academic advisor for Middle schoolers right up to college students and later as a contributor on Fox until being made a full-time panellist on several of their shows.

Before she knew it, the taxi had pulled to a stop outside the building. The large ‘ABC’ plaque shining proudly in the New York sun. Maybe it was an omen. She shook her head. She didn’t believe in such things. She handed over the driver a couple of bills and stepped out of the cab. While it may have been clear and sunny, there was still a cold sting to the air. She wrapped the top of her coat tighter around herself before heading into the building.

She headed to the reception cubicle which housed three receptionists, each talking wildly into their headsets while their fingers typed quickly across the computer’s keyboard.

She cleared her throat, as one of them finished up a chat, to let them know she was waiting.

“Hello, how can I help you today?” the girl asked, plastering the fakest smile Jedediah had ever seen upon her face.

“Hi, I’m Jedediah Bila. I’m here to speak to Brian from ‘The View’.”

“Oh, yes, sorry. Brian is in a meeting right now, but he called in earlier to say he’ll be down to see to you himself soon. Can I offer you coffee or tea while you wait?”

“Coffee would be good. Thank you.” It was exactly what she needed, the cab ride over had been cold, and the driver had refused to turn on the heat telling her it was broken.

“If you would like to take a seat, I’ll bring it to you shortly,” The girl responded. She directed her over to the plastic chairs against the wall.

The layout was quite like Fox’s studio. Pictures of the networks highest grossing shows as well as its newer actors lined the walls. The building was decorated in bright blues and whites. She spotted a few Disney items hanging on the walls and placed on shelves in the large foyer.

Within moments the girl from before is standing in front of her with a steaming Styrofoam cup as well as a sugar stick. She accepts the cup with gratitude and lets her fingers warm up wrapped around it. She hears Brian before she sees him. He’s talking rapidly into a phone, something about scheduling before he hangs up abruptly.

“Jed, it’s lovely to see you. If you want to follow me, I’ll bring you right up.”

“Thanks.”

Brian had been working at the show for several years now. He knew the ups and downs of the show. He had seen presenters come and go like revolving doors. Not only was he in charge of the everyday running of the show, he was involved in the hiring’s and the firings and Jed made sure to keep that in mind.

He led her to an elevator. As they rode up, they filled the space with small talk before getting off at their floor. She followed him down a small hallway which was housed with pictures of past and current ‘The View’ co-hosts as well as the many famous celebrities who had visited the show. He opened the door to his office, and she was surprised to see two other executives waiting inside.

“Hi Jed! Please, take a seat,” One of the female executives said, motioning to the seat in front of the table in front of them while Brian took a seat next to the executives.

“So, we just wanted have a quick talk and go over a few key points before your appearance on the show.”

“Sounds good,” Jed smiled.

“Great. As you know, you’ll be appearing for a few spots, but we wanted to go through your views. We already know you’re a conservative but wanted to know how far right you fall on the spectrum? The table already contains many liberal takes.” Hearing this had Jed a little uneasy. Were they going to coach her on her answers?

“Look, I’ll be honest with you. I no longer consider myself a republican, but I do consider myself a fiscal conservative and a part of my views are also socially liberal. I have no problem in defending my views and always bring verified sources as evidence to support my arguments,” Jed said.

Each of the executives smiled at her answer and wrote down notes after she finished speaking.

“Fantastic! We also wanted to have a quick-fire round with you. Brian will give us some topics to discuss. Some will be relevant news topics and some fun topics, sound good?” The man asked while Brian shuffled through some index cards.

“Sounds great!” She replied.

They quickly fell into debate. Jed not afraid to hold back and, like she said, back up each of her statements with evidence. The executives would quickly scribble down in their notepads after she made some compelling arguments and then hit her with the next talking point. Things seemed to get more heated when they ventured into the ‘fun’ topics. Jed could have sworn she saw one of the executives’ blush from her answer on ‘How long should sex last?’. What? They asked? Was she not supposed to reply?

Things got serious again when they questioned her commitment to Fox News. They knew her schedule worked out with her appearing on evening debates meaning she was free in the mornings to do The View. If the audience took a liking to Jed like they hoped they would, then they would like to bring her aboard full-time assuming she fit well with the other women.

At the end of the round the executives, Brian stood up prompting Jedediah to do the same. “Well, Jedediah, we would like to formally welcome you to The View” They all shook hands with her and wished her well.

“Brian will show you to your dressing room. Feel free to add any knick-knacks. We encourage everyone here to add a bit of their personality to the rooms,” One of the executives said.

She waved her goodbyes and followed Brian back down to the elevators and down to another floor where ‘The View’ rooms were. 

“You’ll be sharing this one Jed,” he said. Waving her into a small sized room.

While it was a small space, it had a cozy feel. The walls were plain white, a white vanity and mirror were attached to the wall on the side with a small stool facing it. There was a fur rug on the floor and an L-shaped sofa on the opposite side of the room with a blanket draped over the back.

“I know they said decorate however you want but as you can see, there isn’t much room to play around with,” Brian said as she looked around the room, “I’ll let you settle in and I’ll have someone come and get you.”

“Thanks, Brian,” She waved.

She dropped her bag on the desk and sat down on the couch. She spread her arms out over the back of the couch imagining what it will be like coming into the studio and relaxing in this room before going to ‘the’ table. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. Her dressing room at Fox was no bigger than a cleaning storage closet with little room to change clothes so having a couch was heaven. She could handle sharing the room if it meant she could relax in this room.

“Jedediah?” a woman asked, lightly knocking on the door.

“Yes?” Jedediah replied. She quickly stood from the couch and tried not to look too embarrassed as she was caught lying down on the couch.

The woman reached out her hand for a handshake, “I’m Molly. I’m going to be giving you a quick tour if that’s ok?”

“Lead the way,” Jedediah said with a smile.

The woman led her back into the corridor and down long hallways. The building from the outside was deceptive. It made it seem like a small company occupied the space from the outside but inside it was massive. Jedediah kept thinking they were eventually going to hit a wall every time they turned the corner at the end of a hall and was surprised every time there was another long hallway in front of her. The woman leading her stopped in front of a glass wall and inside Jedediah could see people furiously typing and speaking through headsets.

“This is our news team. They check all the facts, block out the names of people before certain hot topics and update the ladies on real time if something major happens while we’re on air and didn’t get to discuss it during our hot topic meetings in the mornings so don’t be surprised if you hear these guys as well as the producers talking in your ear while you’re at the table,” Molly said. She knocked on the glass door and waved inside to the people working there and they waved back out.

Jed waved into the team before following Molly down the hallway again and this time they got into the elevator and went down to the bottom floor. She showed her the different sound stages and the different teams from the producer’s box to the makeup and styling team and camera operators set ups. Molly joked to keep them on her good side they would in fact shoot her good side while filming.

The eventually came to a stop in front of two blue doors with ‘The View’ written on them. 

“This is our discussion room. This is where you and the ladies will meet in the mornings and find out what topics you will be talking about for the show and get your debate points ready. You’ll have time to prep yourself and gather your facts to protect your view,” Molly said before opening the door to the room.

Jedediah had thought the room was going to be empty and was shocked when it opened to a bustling room full of people and more specifically, the ladies were all there. Jedediah had thought she had prepped herself enough to be coming to face to face with a living talk show legend like Joy Behar but the person who really took her breath away was of course the main star, Whoopi Goldberg. The woman was sitting down at the table speaking with another woman at the table while most of the other co-hosts were by the crafts table dishing up food on plates.

“Hey everybody!” Molly yelled over the noise and almost everyone looked over at the two of them, “This is Jedediah. She will be joining us for a few co-host spots.”

Everyone shouted over a greeting welcoming her to the show. Molly turned to her and handed her a pen and some index cards, “The producers are going to go through the topics for today with everyone in a few minutes so grab something to eat and take a seat. There will be someone in from the news team in a few minutes so if you need any fact checking done or anything researched before the show, let them know.”

“Wait! I’m going on the show today?” Jedediah asked.

“Of course! We had a cancellation this morning and it just so coincided with your visit to the executives. We called your agent to pass on the message as he didn’t leave your contact information with us before. I’m guessing he didn’t pass along the message?” Molly replied with a question of her own.

Jedediah knew she should have gotten a better agent months ago but the devil she knew was the devil she knew.

“No, he didn’t. I thought it would be just an introduction today,” Jedediah replied. She couldn’t believe she trusted her agent when he said all communication would be better going through him first.

Molly looked at her for a moment and Jedediah was afraid that she was going to tell her the company made a mistake and would not be having her on and she would need to leave the premises immediately. She was waiting for Molly to click her finger snap and for security to drag her from the building in front of Whoopi Goldberg.

After a beat Molly smiled gently and said “No problem! If you don’t feel comfortable coming on today, we can have you on another day. We’ve all been there with agents. Your comfort comes first here.”

After all her time on Fox, Jed had never heard anyone ask or say something to her like that. The closest she got was the styling team asking how she was feeling before debating a far-right conservative, “Of course, I would love to be on today. I’ll need that news editor to work with me though. I need my points to be perfect if I am going up against Joy Behar,” Jedediah and Molly laughed.

“Good to hear it! I’m going to go and make sure everything else is ready for the show and let you get to know the ladies,” Molly said before leaving.

Paula, who was going to be a co-host on the show with her as well, walked over and welcomed her to the show. Jedediah had slight reservations about the woman but shrugged it off.

When Paula moved away to speak with someone else, Jedediah saw Whoopi was on her own. She debated whether to go over and risk embarrassing herself with how much of a fan she was of the veteran actress. She knew she had to introduce herself to the woman. Afterall, she would be debating her on Tv soon.

“Ms. Goldberg?” Jedediah asked, walking up to the woman.

“Nope,” Whoopi said quickly, “You can just call me Whoopi.”

“Whoopi it is then. I have to say how huge a fan I am of yours. Ghost was one of my favorite movies growing up,” Jed said.

“I’m happy to hear it. I don’t remember making half of those movies anymore, to be honest. I probably should because those were the highest peaks in my career,” Whoopi said.

“What are you talking about? You’re still high!” Jedediah exclaimed.

“Of course, I am,” Whoopi laughed, “My batch from this morning hasn’t worn off yet.”

Jedediah laughed loudly with the other woman, “It is going to be a pleasure working with you, Whoopi.”

Whoopi smiled before responding, “Thank you and I appreciate that. Now, go and get some food before the meeting starts.”

Jedediah finished pleasantries before she made her way over to the catering table where a vast spread of food was splayed out. She was just plating up some finger food when she felt a tap on her back. She turned around to see Raven standing in front of her. Jedediah couldn’t help but notice she was slightly taller in person than she was expecting.

“Hey! I just wanted to come over and say hi and welcome you to the show,” Raven said.

“Thank you. It’s definitely going to be a life changing experience,” Jedediah replied.

“Girl, you can say that again,” Raven laughed.

Raven grabbed some food from the table before heading back to her seat. Jedediah surveyed the room looking for an empty seat at the table and locked eyes with Joy. The older woman smiled and waved her over to the empty seat next to her. She tried not to stare at Joy’s infamous hairdo, but it was hard not to with its fiery red color. Nobody else but Joy could pull it off.

“Jedediah Bila,” Jed said, reaching out and shaking Joy’s hand.

“Bila? You have any Italian in your family by any chance?” Joy asked.

“Yes,” Jed replied.

Joy’s infectious smile immediately came out, “Perfect. Y’know, I had my reservations about a Fox news conservative coming on, but I have a feeling you and I are going to get along just fine.”

Jed exhaled slowly, “You don’t know how happy I am to hear you say that. Everyone I’ve met seems so pleasant and nice. I can’t wait to meet the other co-hosts whatever day that happens.”

“One word of advice, careful with that word nice. Women can be bitches especially the younger ones,” Joy joked looking pointedly over in Paula and Raven’s direction.

“I love you too Joy,” Raven hollered across the table. Joy smirked back at her.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Jed laughed, “Though I might not be here for that long just a few spots until someone returns from maternity leave.”

“You’re talking about Sara,” Joy interjected, “They always say they’re bringing people on for a ‘few spots’ but my guess is they will keep you even when Sara comes back.

“Well, I hope I get to meet Sara then,” Jedediah replied.

“You’re going to love Sara,” Joy said and others in the room hummed in agreement.

The producers entered the room holding papers containing the hot topics of the day and almost immediately the debates began. Jed found herself debating points with Joy almost instantaneously and if it was a glimpse of what she had in store, it was going to be fun.


End file.
